Italian oil services company Saipem is the successful bidder for a Dolphin Energy (DEL) contract to construct a 370-kilometer natural gas export pipeline between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. The contract is valued in excess of $350 million, reported a press release.

The line pipe has already been ordered from Japan’s Mitsui & Company. On completion in 2006, the pipeline will transport natural gas from DEL’s processing plant in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City to landfall at Taweelah in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

To construct the pipeline, some 440,000 tons of steel pipe will be manufactured in Japan and shipped to the Gulf. It will then be coated and laid in a continuous process by Saipem up to a maximum depth of 50 meters.

The award was made in accordance with the recommendations of the Dolphin Tender Committee. Other approved bidders were Switzerland's Allseas, J Ray McDermott (UAE), NPCC (UAE) and Stolt of France.

Dolphin Energy is owned 51 percent by Mubadala Investment Company, on behalf of the Government of Abu Dhabi and 24.5 percent each by Total of France and Occidental Petroleum of the United States. — (menareport.com)